4,000,000 gallons per day

[gsdx]

This has become Obama's Katrina.

Indeed. Both were man-made disasters.

 

[BeMused]

BP's been lying about this since Day One and the govt isn't doing enough to make them comply.

 

[hotatlboi]

Well they know they can get away with it. They know the Executive Branch has no real power against them. Think about it. Obama can do nothing. Shows yet another the weakness of the Executive Branch. bad system ... executive judicial and legislative all fight each other so nothing gets done...

The federal government does not need to get even more powerful than it already is.

We have a regulatory agency that should have prevented this. They didn't do their jobs. This is the result. If they had done their jobs, more power would not have been needed.

 

[Piquechampion]

What exactly happened here????

 

[hotdog1846]

This whole thing is like watching a train wreck in slow motion, like a comedy of errors.

Except it's not funny.

 

[Joshua_me]

BP's been lying about this since Day One and the govt isn't doing enough to make them comply.

This was interesting... (from the AP)


If anybody is frustrated with this response, I would tell them their symptoms are normal, because I'm frustrated, too," said Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen.

"Nobody likes to have a feeling that you can't do something about a very big problem," Allen told The Associated Press Friday.

Still, as simple as it may seem for the government to just take over, the law prevents it, Allen said.

After the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, Congress dictated that oil companies be responsible for dealing with major accidents - including paying for all cleanup - with oversight by federal agencies. Spills on land are overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency, offshore spills by the Coast Guard.

"The basic notion is you hold the responsible party accountable, with regime oversight" from the government, Allen said. "BP has not been relieved of that responsibility, nor have they been relieved for penalties or for oversight."
He and Coast Guard Adm. Mary Landry, the federal onsite coordinator, direct virtually everything BP does in response to the spill - and with a few exceptions have received full cooperation, Allen said.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was even more emphatic.
"There's nothing that we think can and should be done that isn't being done. Nothing," Gibbs said Friday during a lengthy, often testy exchange with reporters about the response to the oil disaster.

There are no powers of intervention that the federal government has available but has opted not to use, Gibbs said.